LAKE FOREST – A power shift has taken place on the Lake Forest City Council, demonstrated most recently in the appointment of Jolene Fuentes to the Planning Commission.

Fuentes, the vice president of a local homeowners association, was voted in by the council’s three newest members, Councilman Dwight Robinson, Councilman Adam Nick and Mayor Scott Voigts.

She was picked from among eight applicants interviewed Tuesday for the position and chosen over three former city commissioners because she has the same philosophy as that of the council’s majority, her supporters said.

Voigts, Nick and Robinson have positioned themselves as pro-business, fiscal conservatives. Nick has pushed the council to take back some decision-making power previously delegated to administrators.

“We all come to this with a certain type of philosophy,” Robinson said. “There are a lot of highly qualified people. but if I don’t know if they’re going to fit with my philosophy, it wouldn’t make sense for me to pick that person.”

Fuentes will fill the spot vacated in July by Tim Hughes, a member of the city’s inaugural Planning Commission, who moved out of the state for business.

According to her resume, Fuentes has been a member of the Lake 2 Homeowners Association board since 2009. She was a member of the Irvine Valley College Foundation from 2002 to 2005. She has managed property she owns in Newport Beach since 1983. She worked for a Mission Viejo property management company for two years in the 1980s.

She is also the wife of the late Tom Fuentes, a well-known Orange County politician and longtime chairman of the county Republican Party.

Since the death of her husband, Fuentes said she has been “trying to figure out how I want to move on and something just sparked” when she read of the vacancy, she said.

Robinson, who was endorsed by the GOP in the 2012 election, said he “knew her husband somewhat well before he passed away.”

“I believe I know where she’s going to come from, (from) a philosophical standpoint,” he said, though he expects her to be an “independent thinker” and potentially a swing vote on the commission.

Experience should not be the top qualification for commission appointees, Robinson said.

“When (former planning commissioner) Dave Carter was appointed in 1994 he probably didn’t have that much experience … but he was very active in the community,” he said. “It’s really staff’s responsibility to have that institutional knowledge.”

Nick, who was also endorsed by the GOP, said he appointed Jolene Fuentes through a process of elimination.

Carter, former planning commissioner Terry Anderson and former parks and recreation commissioner Amanda Morrell were the most qualified applicants for the seat, Nick said. They lost his support because of decisions they have made, he said.

“I want commission members who are an extension of me, who think like me,” he said.

Morrell’s support of a stadium at El Toro High, which was strenuously opposed by some of the campus’ neighbors, took her out of the running, Nick said.

Carter and Anderson were on the commission when it rejected a plan by the owners of the revamped El Toro Road Sizzler restaurant to install Americana-themed displays on the building. The commission denied Sizzler’s request, saying the decorative signs were at odds with the area’s Craftsman design and signage.

Nick met Fuentes when he was campaigning in 2012. A friend of Nick’s introduced them and encouraged Fuentes to sign his ballot statement. She did.

The one-time encounter had no affect on Nick’s appointment of Fuentes, he said.

Fuentes’ tenure on the HOA board at Lake 2, where Nick once lived, makes her a “proven entity,” he said. Nick said he is comfortable with her as a commissioner because of the “financially conservative” way in which Lake 2 is run under the board’s direction.

McCullough and Herzog tried to return Carter to the commission, citing his 19 years of experience.

The commission needs someone who can “hit the ground running,” McCullough said.

Upon Fuentes’ appointment, Herzog accused his colleagues of acting for “political reasons” by selecting someone that will be “beholden” to them.

“To say I’m disappointed would be a gross understatement,” Herzog said, calling it “truly a tragedy.”

Nick disagreed vehemently.

“What Mr. Herzog calls tragedy, I call democracy,” Nick said. “People on November 6 … they spoke, they put a new council in place. Two years earlier they had spoken by allowing Mayor Voigts to be the pioneer of change. That change continued on, and I promise you that change will continue on, November of next year.”

Institutional knowledge is important, but term limits show that it shouldn’t be the only consideration, he said.

“Change is a good thing, I embrace it,” Nick said.

Voigts agreed, saying he thought it was “time for a fresh face” on the commission.

A commissioner just needs the “ability to comprehend issues” that come to the board, not a background in planning, he said.

“Everybody starts somewhere,” Voigts said.

Fuentes, who will serve until December 2014, is expected to be seated at the Sept. 12 Planning Commission meeting.

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.